SINGAPORE (Feb. 19, 2013) – Glory Sports International (GSI), the parent company of the world’s new premiere kickboxing league, announced today that it will bring it’s ROAD TO GLORY USA development fight series designed to identify America’s next great kickboxing superstars, to Lou Neglia’s Combat at the Capitale in New York, NY on Friday, March 22.

The winner of the eight-man, single-elimination welterweight (170 pounds/77 kilograms) tournament featuring a host of prolific, up-and-coming competitors, will be awarded a $20,000 grand prize and a one-year contract with GLORY, home of the world’s elite kickboxing champions and superstars.

Tickets for the event are priced from $40 for standing admission and $55, $75, and $100 for seated admission, and can be purchased at the door or in advance by phone at 516-458-4989.The tournament is being held as part of a kickboxing fight card being promoted by former world champion Louis Neglia. “I’m very excited to see the top kickboxers compete and be featured in the new premier kickboxing league, as well as have a chance to be compensated monetarily for their talent, sacrifice, and hard work” says Lou, who is a top fight promoter.

“We are thrilled to bring our all-new ROAD TO GLORY development tournament series to fight fans in New York City, one of the world’s greatest sports and entertainment epicenters,” said GLORY CEO Andrew Whitaker.

“With the two ROAD TO GLORY tournaments we’ve held in the U.S. thus far,” continued Whitaker, “we’ve been able to discover tremendously bright and promising young kickboxers who could be developed to one day compete on GLORY’s championship stage, which is exactly what ROAD TO GLORY was created for.We are confident that we will continue to unearth all kinds of new talent across the country, beginning with the upcoming event in New York.”

Tae Kwon Do black belt and Muay Thai champion Cyrus Washington (52-21-1, 48 KOs) of Macallen, Texas will square off with Chris Clodfelter (7-3-1, 3 KOs) of King, N.C. in a tournament “reserve” bout on the card.Should any of the tournament’s quarterfinal round fight winners be unable to return to the ring for semifinal round action due to injury sustained en route to victory, the winner of the matchup between Washington and Clodfelter will take the injured fighter’s place in the tournament.

A draw to determine the ROAD TO GLORY USA welterweight tournament’s quarterfinal round matchups will take place on a date and at a location to be announced soon.

Doors at Capitale will open for the event at 7 p.m. EST and the first preliminary bout begins at 8 p.m.

GLORY World Series (www.gloryworldseries.com) is the world's new premier kickboxing league, producing live events across the globe and offering up to $2 million in prize money to the winners of one-night, 16-man ‘Grand Slam’ tournaments, which are open to only the best fighters in each of six different weight classes. The fight series also includes 8-man ‘Slam’ tournaments and events with traditional, single bouts.

With television deals spanning every continent, online live video streaming of all shows and the world's largest online martial arts library, GLORY is one of the world's most widely distributed sporting organizations.

Owned and operated by Glory Sports International (GSI), the organization has offices in the UK, Holland, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and soon in the USA. Its personnel include an unprecedented mix of accomplished entrepreneurs and senior level executives from the diverse worlds of finance, sports marketing, television and martial arts fighting.

In 2013, GLORY launched the ROAD TO GLORY tournament fight series to identify and develop new kickboxing talent in The United States, Japan and elsewhere around the globe into future champions and superstars of the sport.

Lou Neglia's Ring of Combat is one of the longest running and most successful MMA promotions in the country.More than 80 ROC fighters have moved on to the UFC and other top promotions, including former UFC champions Frankie Edgar and Matt Serra.Recently, two more former ROC fighters have been making headlines in the UFC.UFC title contenders Chris Weidman and Costa Philippou, both of whom fought solely at the Ring of Combat before signing with the UFC, are both on five fight win streaks in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Philippou, who fought nine times at the Ring of Combat before getting the call from the UFC, recently destroyed highly ranked Tim Boetsch at UFC 155.Costa's dominance over Boetsch was a surprise to many fans, but not to Lou Neglia.Lou, a former world champion kick boxer, does his own matchmaking at the Ring of Combat, and he saw Costa's potential early on.Lou's tough matchmaking has benefitted Costa, who has shown himself to be well prepared for the UFC.

There are no easy fights at the ROC, which is one reason why so many ROC fighters move on to the "big show."If you have what it takes to succeed at the Ring of Combat, you are prepared for the UFC.And there is also the name recognition that fighters develop when fighting at the ROC.Lou puts on four or five shows a year, and ROC fighters get known by fight fans before they hit the big time.The UFC and other big promotions know well of the ROC's reputation, and it's clear that they look to the ROC for new talent.

As a former champion, Lou Neglia knows what it takes to succeed in combat sports.And he looks for those types of championship qualities in his own fighters.At the ROC, a fighter's won-lost record doesn't mean as much as his heart and passion for the sport.If a fighter shows talent and determination and loses at a ROC event, he is not in danger of being cut.The big shows would rather take a 7-3 fighter from the ROC than a 10-0 fighter from another organization, because they know that whoever fights at the ROC will have been in with very challenging opponents.Records can be deceiving, ands some promoters try to pad certain fighters' records by giving them easy fights and putting them in mismatches.

That does not happen at the Ring of Combat.Only genuine fighters fight there--not guys who want to impress people by saying they're fighters.If you're a "pretty boy" fighter who wants easy victories, the ROC is not for you.And the UFC knows that.

The latest Ring of Combat, number 43, is coming up on January 25, 2013, and as always, it will feature world-class MMA talent.At the top of the card is undefeated Ryan LaFlare.Ryan has fought six times at the ROC, finishing all his opponents, four of them in the first round.

Also on the card is Deividas Taurosevicius, a fierce competitor who has fought for promotions such as Bellator and the WEC, and who is coming off an exciting come from behind arm bar submission at Ring of Combat 42 back in September.Deividas displayed great courage and determination in that fight and he lived up to Lou's credo that "It's not how hard you get hit, it's how fast you get up."

Deividas and Ryan are the kind of fighters that Lou likes.Lou is a promoter and matchmaker, but he's also a fan.And he makes the kinds of fights that fans want to see."Tough fights make great fighters," Lou says, and the proof is in the ROC and in UFC.

Like American Idol, the Ring of Combat develops talent and showcases rising stars before they get to the big time.Talented fighters get to showcase their skills to a wider audience, including the UFC's and other big shows' talent scouts, while developing their skills against top opposition.And like American Idol, stars are born in the Ring of Combat cage.Some even go on to be UFC champions. Will Weidman and Costa be next?It's a good bet that one of both of these fighters will reach the highest levels in the UFC.

Who will be the next MMA superstar?Find out on January 25 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at Ring of Combat 43.

Lou Neglia is a former world kickboxing champion, and president of Ring of Combat, one of the longest running MMA promotions outside of the UFC.Of course, Lou takes great pride in his world championship, but he takes just as much pride in turning young fighters into UFC veterans and champions.Eighty mixed martial artists who got their start at the Ring of Combat have moved onto the UFC and had highly successful careers, a feat that is perhaps unmatched in MMA history.

Three examples out of the eighty fighters who have moved on to the UFC are Matt Serra, Costa Philippou and Chris Weidman.These three warriors all fought for Lou Neglia exclusively before moving up to the UFC.Matt Serra, who used to fight at Lou's Vengeance at the Vanderbilt show, went on to become a UFC champion.Costa Philippou is currently riding a four fight win streak in the UFC, and quickly moving up the ranks.And Chris Weidman is getting off to an amazing start with the UFC.Undefeated in his MMA career, he is 4-0 at the ROC and 5-0 in the UFC, and is coming off a dominating win over highly ranked Mark Munoz.Neglia feels that the sky is the limit for Weidman, and expects Chris to win the UFC middleweight championship in the near future.

"Weidman has the mental toughness to be a champion," Lou says."He has confidence in himself and never worries about the other guy.When he gets hit, he grits his teeth and fires back.Other guys fold, but not Chris Weidman.He has all the tools.He's championship quality."

Lou then goes on to addressAnderson Silva, the legendary UFC middleweight champion:"Chris Weidman is coming for you, and he will take you down and that will be his avenue to his victory."

Yet another fighter who fought exclusively for Lou before moving up into a Zuffa-owned promotion is Strikeforce star Gian Villante.Villante is on a three fight win streak at Strikeforce, and Lou expects big things from him.These are just four examples out of a total of eighty who have gone on to big things in their MMA careers.

As you can see, Lou is very proud of his fighters, and proud of the way that the Ring of Combat has prepared them for the UFC.For its part, the UFC is well aware of the quality of competition that the ROC offers, which is why so many ROC fighters now fight there.In this business, it's who you fight and how you fight rather than just your record that gets you into the big leagues.There are examples of the UFC declining 10-0 fighters who have fought in other organizations in favor of signing 7-3 fighters who have proven themselves in the ROC cage.Lou Neglia's philosophy is competitive fights make great fighters, not just when you get to the UFC, but at every step of the way.For fighters looking to pad their records, participate in mismatches or get easy fights, Lou will be the first to say that the Ring of Combat is definitely not the place to go.And his long list of successful alumni shows the wisdom of this way of thinking.

Another important part of the Ring of Combat's success--it sells out every show--is that Neglia doesn't try to compete with the UFC.He's more than happy with finding and developing talented fighters to the point where they can compete and succeed in the big show.

Several MMA promoters have approached Lou about merging their promotions in order to compete with the UFC.Lou always declines the offers.He sees through these offers, and knows that many promoters are driven by greed and jealousy of the UFC--which is why they wind up folding while the ROC continues to thrive.

Lou Neglia will continue to put on great shows and develop the MMA stars of tomorrow.It's his niche and something he loves doing.He always feels a special joy when ripping up a contract with a fighter because that fighter got a call from the UFC.As a former fighter and world champion himself, Neglia knows that the ultimate goal of any fighter is to achieve a world title.He's proud that his Ring of Combat is the ultimate stepping-stone to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and will be for years to come.

If you view the Northeast as a microcosm of the MMA world, then Ring of Combat and promoter Lou Neglia are akin to the UFC and Dana White. You simply cannot be a homegrown aspiring pro fighter around these parts without harboring designs on making your mark in ROC (or the Cage Fury Fighting Championship, but that's for another post), and given that dozens and dozens of UFC veterans can credit ROC as the stepping stone that helped them reach the Octagon, well, that makes Neglia the man who laid those stones down to create that path.

It's not hard to find old pics of Neglia from his championship-kickboxer days, but most of us know him as a promoter. Ring of Combat, which began in 2002 and is now up to its thirty-eighth pro installment, is perhaps his greatest achievement in the realm of MMA; however, there are amateur MMA events in there, too, plus a long-running NYC-based kickboxing show called Combat at the Capitale and a seemingly endless number of one-off events (Battle on Broadway featured kickboxing and MMA bouts in a hotel ballroom in Times Square almost a decade ago, while there was a recent kickboxing extravaganza out in Brighton Beach). Before that, there were fourteen Vengeance at the Vanderbilt installments on Long Island, which saw the likes of Matt Serra and Pete Sell getting their MMA on... heck, the first sanctioned MMA bout in New Jersey took place on one of Neglia's show in Atlantic City. "Longevity" may be an abstract concept to some promoters, but to Neglia, that word is like a genetic sequence coded into his DNA.

It takes a very shrewd business men to survive for any length of time in this sport, but Neglia has managed to temper that necessary shrewdness with traits like kindness, compassion and a genuine friendliness. If you're a reporter, he'll accomodate you; if you're a promising young upstart, he'll make sure you're tested (remember: padded records don't get you into the UFC, hard fights do); and if you're a grizzled veteran, he'll find a spot for you on the next card.

There's a few reasons why ROC has thrived for so long. But without question, the biggest one is Neglia.

MMA has seen many new organizations try to go head to head with the UFC and fail. EliteXC, Affliction, Bodog and the IFL all tried to compete with the UFC, but soon realized why the UFC is the number 1 MMA organization in the world. It's nice to think big, but in MMA you have to be realistic. The UFC is number 1 for a reason. It has the best fighters on the planet and the best brand recognition. And when it comes to business, Dana White and the Ferttitta brothers take a no holds barred approach to beating the competition, which is why the UFC is still the undisputed champion of MMA promotions.

One organization, however, Lou Neglia's Ring of Combat, has managed to thrive where so many others have failed. The ROC is one of the longest running shows outside of the UFC, and the longest sanctioned promotion outside of the UFC. And there is good reason for this. Instead of trying to compete with the UFC, Lou Neglia sees his promotion as one where fighters can hone their skills to such a level that they can move on to the big show. Indeed, where other promoters try to lock up their fighters into contracts that forbid them from fighting in the UFC, Lou encourages his fighters to move upwards and onwards.

"The UFC deserves its place in history," Lou said. "They are the World Series of MMA. I have a great relationship with the UFC and even have their logo on one of my event posters. When a fighter tells me he has on offer from the UFC, I gladly rip up his contract."

As a former kickboxing world champion himself, Lou understands the ambitions of professional fighters, and has a keen insight into what it takes to be a high level professional athlete. He would never dream of trying to stifle their growth. Lou takes great pride in developing the talents of his fighters, to the extent that an astounding 44 fighters who have fought at the ROC have moved on to the UFC, including current UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar. Many more if you count those who have moved on to Bellator, the WEC and Strikeforce.

Not only is Neglia the CEO of Ring of Combat, he is the matchmaker too. And he's a tough matchmaker--there are no "gimme" fights at the ROC. In this way, Lou prepares fighters for the adversity they will face in the Octagon. He does his best to give fighters the kinds of tough fights they need to take the ultimate step in their MMA career.

"If you give people easy fights, what happens when they get to the UFC?" Lou said. "The best fighters are in the UFC and you need to be prepared."

This mindset is why so many of his fighters have gone on to have great success in the Octagon. Chris Weidman is the latest example of a fighter who fought his entire pro career at the Ring of Combat and is now undefeated in three fights in the Octagon. His tough fights at the ROC have prepared him for the tough fights in the UFC.

But the ROC is about more than just finding and developing new talent. The shows always feature "superfights" which include some of the sport's biggest names from all around the world. At ROC XVIII, for example, the card featured fighters from Brazil, Canada and even the Republic of Georgia, making it a true international event.

This is all part of Lou's strategy to make the Ring of Combat the biggest show not competing with the UFC. And his formula is working. He is providing fighters with an opportunity of a lifetime, as well as giving MMA fans what they want most: the best fights you can find outside of the UFC.